On The Scene // Neil Campbell – eMErgence Album Launch

A new album from Neil
Campbell is always an experience and arriving for the launch of his sixteenth
album, the excellent eMErgence, the surroundings are darkly comforting.
Liverpool’s Kazimier is known for its atmosphere and there’s plenty of that as
a crowd gradually develops. Just a bit later than expected our first set of the
night is a typically intricate and bare boned but energetic solo set from the
man himself, Neil Campbell. The short set was very well received, with a
selection of pieces older and more recent keeping the audience enraptured.

Unusually, he’s very
talkative on this occasion, with much banter in-between songs and whilst it’s
usually his excellent multi layered compositions that speak there’s an added
dimension on this particular evening. Following a brief interlude in which I
wander the venue and bump into a few familiar faces, we’re back to the cosy
stage for an expanded line up. Adding three to the number on stage previously,
the Perri & Neil Quartet are warmth for many a cold soul in the venue as
evidenced when Perri Alleyne-Hughes of the band announces their arrival as a
warming up of the atmosphere.

True to their words, there
is soon a warm glow in the room as some well-chosen covers, including an
excellent version of Joni Mitchell’s Blue, and most notably some original
tracks from their debut duo album Then, set an average Wednesday evening
propelling into another stratosphere of chilled- outness. Another break follows
before the event we’ve been waiting for, the full band performance of tracks
from eMErgence.

Of course, there is much one
could say about the music of Neil Campbell, (and we’ll discuss eMErgence more
specifically in our forthcoming review once we’ve stopped listening to it in
repeat), but to say he’s adventurous would be an understatement. Producing
instrumental music is hard enough of a task after 16 albums of mostly said
genre, but to keep it as refined and fresh is a real talent. In what was
admitted by Campbell to be the first time they’ve played the piece together on
stage, the full eight piece band delivered a stirring performance of sound and
audio adventure.

Highlights were many and it would be unwise to choose any one
moment as a highlight as the music itself spoke loud and clear enough. The only
disappointment of the night was the curfew of eleven o’clock as it must surely
have impacted on such a wide ranging set of compositions.

After not catching Campbell
live for a while it was a pleasure to spend a Wednesday evening indulging in
music of that rare essential breed. An evening well spent indeed.